Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History St Hillarys : The Tudor tower Wallasey

There have been churches dedicated to St Hilary on this site since at least 902 and it`s possible that the earliest church dates back to the Fifth century. The tower, (the oldest building in Wallasey), was built as part of the fourth St Hilary`s church in 1530.

The tower became part of the fifth church built in 1757-1760. It remained the only church in Wallasey until the Nineteenth century and on the North side of the tower was the first school in Wallasey.

Legends speak of tunnels leading from below the tower floor to other parts of Wallasey and that these tunnels were used to hide the goods collected by local shipwreckers.

This fifth church was destroyed by fire in 1857. The fire was caused by the sexton stoking up the boiler too high after complaints that the church was cold. The heat melted fat on hams being unofficialy smoked above the boiler which in turn caught fire.
It is recorded that Wallasey smelt of bacon for days afterwards.

The fire destroyed the tower floors and the six bells crashed down and were broken.
They were re-cast and placed in the present St Hilarys.

In 1893 the tower roof was repaired and the ground floor area became a mortuary chapel. The floor level was raised and decorated with Minton tiles.

The tower was re-roofed and restored in 2003.

For times of opening and access contact the Rector (0151 638 4771)

The important parish of Wallasey, -the most populous in the hundred excepting Bebington, -comprehends the three townships of Wallasey, Liscard, and Poulton-cum-Seacombe. In these, which contain 3276 acres, valued in the county books at £11,515, there are, according to the last census, 6261 inhabitants. It occupies the north-east angle of the hundred; Liscard laying at the junction of the sea and the Mersey; Poulton-cum-Seacombe at the union of the creek called Wallasey Pool with that river, and between the two, bounded on the north by the sea, is the township of Wallasey, which extends westward to the Leasowe.

There has been much confusion in the orthography of this parish, which in the Doomsday survey occurs as Walea, and at the period of the compliation of that document the adjacent parish of West Kirkby is called, in the deed of gift of its church, Cherchebie. To this, "West" was afterwards prefixed, to distinguish it from Kirkby in Walley, by which this parish was designated until the early part of the thirteenth century, when the name of Walaysegh first occurs. It was invariably called Kirkby in Walleia, in the registers of Lichfield until 1487, where it appears there as Wallasey, the name it yet retains in the Diocesan books. Walley's Kirk, which frequently occurs, is an evident corruption of Kirkbye in Walleia.

At a very early period Wallasey was a divided rectory, one part of which was held, with various estates in the township, by the prior of Birkenhead, and the other was given by William de Waleya to the abbot and convent of St. Werbergh; at the dissolution these moieties were vested in the bishop of Chester, who is the patron of the rectory. That portion which belonged to the prior of Birkenhead is held under a separate lease from the bishop by the Rev. William Armistead, the present curate of West Kirkby, but the glebe, rectory house, and appurtenances, are attached to the incumbency, as decreed in Chancery in 1720. The value of the living, according to the Clergy List of 1837, is £393; the present Rector is the Rev. Thomas Byrth, D.D., F.S.A. who was instituted in 1829 on the removal of the Rev. Augustus Campbell A. M. to the Rectory of Liverpool.

The priory of Birkenhead formerly maintained a chaplain in Wallasey, and the chapel and which he officiated is that called "Lees-Kirk" in Bishop Gastrell's Notitia, which in this instance is mainly correct, although the information transmitted to the bishop by the rector was derived from Henry Robinson, then schoolmaster of Wallasey, who, in a history of the parish yet remaining in the church chest, details many circumstances upon which the greatest reliance cannot be placed. The Bishop in 1720 wrote:
"There were formerly two churches in Wallasey, one called Walley's Kirk, situated in the present church-yard, the foundations of which are yet visible, and Lee's Kirk, near a narrow slip of land still called the Kirk-way; but when one became ruinous and the other wanted a priest, they were both taken down and the present one erected in their stead. Walley gave those lands near the Crook Hey and the meadow adjoining, and the Town Crook Hey, to the high altar and the priest for ever, for a burying place in the chancel belonging to the church. This deed of gift was in the parish church, and read by H. Robinson, schoolmaster, when I received the information"

The present church, which is dedicated to St. Hilary, has been several times rebuilt; the principal part of the present fabric is not above ninety years old. The tower represents a fair specimen of the architectural style that prevailed in the reign of Henry VIII. when it is stated to have been rebuilt; the date, 1530, appears on the tower and in other parts. A chapel at the west end, distinguished by a curious oak ceiling, is evidently of much greater antiquity tha any other part of the edifice. the church stands in the most commanding situation in the parish, affording from the tower a prospect of vast extent. There are no monuments of particular interest in the church or church-yard, both of which contain numerous memorials of the fatal effects of the storms by which the banks opposite the parish have visited.* The rectory house which stands immediately adjacent the church is a building partly of stone, commenced in 1632, and finished with brick in 1695 by the Rev. Thomas Swinton.**

* The sad destruction of human life that occurred in January 1839, when the Pennsylvania, St. Andrew, Lockwoods, and other vessels, were lost on this coast, must be fresh in the memory of all; the greater part of the sufferers, after being taken to Leasowe Castle and every exertion used to restore them, were buried in this churchyard. About fifteen years since a number of guineas, apparently fresh from the mint, some coins and gold ornaments, were found on a part of the shore now known as the golden sands, supposed to have come from the strong box of some unfortunate ship that must have foundered with all her crew, as far back as the reign of Charles II, as the few other coins were also of that time. It is probble that the chest in which they had been contained at length gave way, as they were only to be found for a few days, when they were as palpable to the sight as if they had just been placed there. In the year 1844, Lady Cust established, in a small building near the beach, Dennet's Rocket apparatus for saving lives from shipwreck, many having been lost within a few yards of assistance for want of means rendering it.

** "The original endowment of the rectory has been found in Rome. in the place in which the duplicate of our English endowments are kept, but I do not believe any copy was taken." -Extracted from information from Bishop Law to the Rev. Augustus Campbell, A. M. and by him obligingly communicated. May 1845.